PARIS >> For a few minutes, anyway, it seemed as if Iga Swiatek was a bit off in the French Open final against Jasmine Paolini. Swiatek kept making mistakes early Saturday, got broken in the third game and trailed at Court Philippe Chatrier.

Might a true surprise be in the offing? Could Paolini not only make a match of this, but actually win it? Um, no. Not even close. Not with the way Swiatek can dominate opponents, especially on red clay.

The top-seeded Swiatek quickly recalibrated her wayward strokes and simply overwhelmed Paolini, grabbing 10 games in a row en route to a 6-2, 6-1 victory that gave her a third consecutive championship at Roland Garros and fourth in five years.

The 23-year-old from Poland had to save a match point in a second-round victory against Naomi Osaka last week, but in the five matches after that three-set escape, Swiatek dropped a total of only 17 games.

“This tournament has been pretty surreal with its beginning and with second round, and then I was able to get my game better and better every match. I’m really proud of myself, because the expectations obviously have been pretty high from the outside. Pressure, as well,” said Swiatek, who is 35-2 overall at the French Open, including a current streak of 21 straight victories. “I’m happy that I just went for it and I was ready to deal with all of this — and I could win.”

She is the first woman with three trophies in a row in Paris since Justine Henin from 2005 to 2007.

The 12th-seeded Paolini, a 28-year-old from Italy appearing in her first Slam final, called facing Swiatek at Roland Garros “the toughest challenge in this sport.”

Swiatek also won the French Open in 2020 and the U.S. Open in 2022 and is now 5-0 in major finals.

“I never played a player that has this intensity before in my life,” Paolini said. “For me, right now, I think it was the most challenging match I played in my entire career.”

During Saturday’s postmatch ceremony, Swiatek was flanked by a pair of women who each won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Evert said before this French Open that she thinks Swiatek could eventually surpass her women’s record of seven championships in Paris.

Paolini, who will rise to a career-best No. 7 in the rankings Monday, had never been past the second round at one of the four most important tennis tournaments until getting to the fourth round at the Australian Open in January.

Swiatek briefly went through a shaky stretch, failing to convert a break point in the second game, then getting broken to trail 2-1 after 13 minutes when she flubbed a forehand.

It was Swiatek’s seventh unforced error of the afternoon; Paolini had made only one. The rest of the way, those numbers: six unforced errors by Swiatek, 17 by Paolini.

Alcaraz, Zverev seek first French title

When Carlos Alcaraz was a kid growing up in Spain — which, considering he’s only 21, was not all that long ago — he used to run home from school and flip on the TV to check out the French Open.

Long before he was preparing to play in Sunday’s final in Paris against Alexander Zverev, Alcaraz watched a lot of matches involving Rafael Nadal, of course, as his countryman was accumulating a record 14 titles at Roland Garros.

“I wanted to put my name on that list of the Spanish players who won this tournament. Not only Rafa,” said Alcaraz, who then rattled off champions such as Juan Carlos Ferrero (who happens to be his coach), Carlos Moya and Albert Costa, calling them “legends from our sport that won this tournament.”

He just might join them.

Alcaraz has triumphed on the U.S. Open’s hard courts in 2022, and Wimbledon’s grass courts in 2023, and now he is one victory away from holding a trophy on the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier in southwest Paris. He would be the youngest man to own a major championship on all three surfaces; as it is, he’s the youngest to make it to finals on every surface.

Zverev, who is from Germany, is trying to claim his first Grand Slam title. He was the runner-up to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 U.S. Open after blowing a two-set lead and losing in five.

“I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it now again: I was not ready. I was not ready to win my first Grand Slam final. I was not mature enough. I was maybe too much of a kid still. I didn’t know what the occasion means. And that’s why I lost,” Zverev said, thinking back to what happened in a nearly empty Arthur Ashe Stadium during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m 27 years old now. So definitely not a kid anymore. Already getting older. If not now, then when?”

No. 3 seed Alcaraz vs. No. 4 seed Zverev marks the first French Open final since 2004 without at least one of (and occasionally two of) Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer participating.